


A Simple Gift

by annabeth_at_the_helm



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: M/M, sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 19:35:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14837895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annabeth_at_the_helm/pseuds/annabeth_at_the_helm
Summary: Father Mulcahy reflects on promises made and promises broken.





	A Simple Gift

**Author's Note:**

> written in ten minutes and loosely based on an old challenge. (April 25,  
> 2003). unbeta'ed. /emphasis/

A really smart person once told me that promises were made to be broken.   
After several rather large mistakes I've come to the conclusion that the  
man who told me that was very wise indeed. I've made many promises in my  
life, and most of them I've kept.

But the most important one, the promise that meant the most and was  
intended to secure and reassure the most, that is the one that I've  
broken. It's been ten years since I was in Korea, and my hearing may  
never quite recover, but there is one voice in my head that I cannot shut  
out.

And He keeps telling me that He put something good into my life, and made  
me a promise, and that He never breaks His promises. He's right, too --  
never once did He offer me anything with strings attached. Once upon a  
time, in Korea, he gave me someone special to love in lieu of everything  
else that was going on. He gave me a precious and irreplaceable gift,  
and I squandered it. The first chance I got I ran away from the feelings  
that were bubbling up inside me.

Because there was one promise I made that I could not break. A vow I  
took. A critical oath that I knew I would never break...

...or so I thought. But when faced with temptation -- and I mean  
/really/ faced with it -- I surrendered just as easily as any  
unencumbered young man might. I looked into those two clear, cool, deep  
blue eyes and I told myself I could resist. I /would/ resist. But when  
he leaned closer -- enough so that I could still smell the mint of his  
toothpaste on his breath -- I gave it up. I admit it.

I broke the one promise I should never have made in the first place, much  
less broken. I closed the distance between us so that I could feel the  
barest touch of his lips to mine. I opened them slightly, and when he  
kissed me, it was no surprise. It was as if at last my life made sense.   
At last I began to understand the gift that He had given me, when he sent  
me to Korea and dropped me into a MASH unit with this man.

That kiss was so much more than just the dissolution of the oath that I  
had made to God. It was a promise.

And, thank God, it's been the only promise that I've kept over the years.  
After finding myself lonely and alone, I realized the only way to make  
peace with myself was to find that gift -- that lover -- and renew the  
relationship I'd begun with that simple kiss. Now, he is the promise  
that sleeps at my side every night, and it's me and me only that can  
soothe his nightmares. That's how I know this is right, and what God  
originally intended for my life.

Because I have served this man better in these ten years than any of the  
thousands I tried to serve in my time as a priest.

He still teases me about the excommunication, though. Whatever the Pope  
thinks, however, God is with me. For me, God lives within the love it  
took so long to find -- the promise that I will never, ever break.

~end

**Author's Note:**

> for iolanthe, RIP darling


End file.
